How does the Croatian football league compare on the national stage?
Many football fans in Croatia often say that the Croatian Football League (HNL) is too weak, too poor, too boring, and at first sight it might seem they may have a point. However, the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS) has announced that the First Division of the Croatian Football League, which is officially called MAXtv Prva Liga, is much stronger and better than Croatian football fans might believe. The IFFHS has published a list of the best national leagues in the world, based on the results which the clubs achieved at national and international level. On that list, Croatian Football League is ranked as the 14th best league in the world, reports Dalmacija News on January 18, 2016.
The result is quite unexpected, but the Institute proudly explains that the list is actually an impartial indicator of the relative strength of various leagues around the world. More importantly, Croatian league has been constantly improving its position on the list. Last year, HNL was at the 26th place, while four years ago it was only the 51st best league in the world. Statistics indeed show a huge improvement.
In 2015, for the sixth time in a row, Spanish Primera took the first place thanks to excellent results of its teams, both in domestic and in international competitions. In total, including last year, Primera has been the number one league in the world as many as 10 times. Italian Serie A took the second place for the second year in a row, 85 points behind Primera. The third-ranked league is German Bundesliga, which moved up two positions compared to 2014.
Argentina's Primera Division is the highest-ranked South American league at the fourth place, while Ligue 1 from France jumped from seventh to fifth place. Surprisingly, England's Premier League fell from third to the seventh position.
Here is the ranking list of the top 15 world football leagues in 2015, according to IFFHS (numbers in parenthesis show their position in 2014):
1 (1) Spain 1262.00
2 (2) Italy 1177.00
3 (5) Germany 1044.00
4 (4) Argentina 990.00
5 (7) France 914.00
6 (6) Brazil 899.00
7 (3) England 887,00
8 (8) Portugal 726,50
9 (11), Belgium 725.50
10 (12) Russia 715.00
11 (9) Colombia 711.00
12 (10) Paraguay 709.00
13 (19) Ukraine 687.00
14 (26) Croatia 631.00
15 (23) Czech Republic 627.00
